AceShowbiz - There has long been a discussion that Leonardo DiCaprio earned his first Oscar later than he deserved. By the time he finally won, his body of work already included several performances worthy of the coveted award. His first Academy Award came for his grueling role in The Revenant, where he portrayed a frontiersman enduring extreme hardship. However, many argue he should have been recognized three years earlier for another Western epic, a film in which he played the main antagonist but was surprisingly not even nominated. Instead, his co-star, who had already won an Oscar, received a second trophy for that film. This landmark movie is set to premiere on a new streaming platform this March.

The film in question is not the Tarantino Western Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but rather Django Unchained. This 2012 release, directed by Quentin Tarantino, stars Jamie Foxx as Django Freeman, an enslaved man turned bounty hunter on a quest to rescue his wife. The cast also includes Christoph Waltz and Kerry Washington, with Leonardo DiCaprio portraying the villainous plantation owner Calvin Candie. The movie’s title, graphic violence, and style are a deliberate homage to spaghetti Westerns, marking a modern revisionist take on the genre. Tarantino later returned to Western territory with The Hateful Eight, but it did not match the commercial or critical success of Django Unchained.

Upon its release, Django Unchained earned $450 million worldwide against a $100 million budget, making it the second-highest-grossing Western of all time—only surpassed by The Revenant, which grossed $533 million worldwide on a $135 million budget. The film won Tarantino his second Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and received five total Academy Award nominations. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an 87% "Certified Fresh" rating, with critics praising it as a "bold, bloody, and stylistically daring" masterpiece from the acclaimed director.

Quentin Tarantino is currently preparing what he intends to be his final film, while Leonardo DiCaprio is again in the Oscar race this year, nominated for Best Actor for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. For fans and newcomers alike, Django Unchained will be available for streaming on Peacock starting March 1.